As we enter a new era of politics, we hope to see that Obama has the courage to fight the policies that Progressives hate. Will he have the fortitude to turn the economic future of America to help the working man? Or will he turn out to be just a pawn of big money, as he seems to be right now.

Friday, November 25, 2005

Life Goes On in Fallujah's Rubble

Inter Press ServiceDahr Jamail

SAN FRANCISCO, California, Nov 23 (IPS) - A year after the U.S.-led"Operation Phantom Fury" damaged or destroyed 36,000 homes, 60 schoolsand 65 mosques in Fallujah, Iraq, residents inside the city continue tosuffer from lack of compensation, slow reconstruction and high rates ofillness.

The Study Centre for Human Rights and Democracy based in Fallujah(SCHRD) estimates the number of people killed in the city during theU.S.-led operation in October and November 2004 at 4,000 to 6,000, mostof them civilians. Mass graves were dug on the outskirts of the city forthousands of the bodies.

Last week, the Pentagon confirmed that it had used white phosphorus, achemical that bursts into flame upon contact with air, inside Fallujahas an "incendiary weapon" against insurgents. Washington denies that itis a chemical weapon, as charged by some critics, and that it was usedagainst civilians.

Compensation payments promised by Iyad Allawi, the U.S.-backed interimprime minister at the time of the operation, have failed to materialisefor many residents in the city, who lack potable water and sufferelectricity cuts on a daily basis.

"People were paid almost 20 percent of what they were promised byAllawi, which was just 100 million dollars," said Mohamad Tareqal-Deraji, a resident of Fallujah and spokesperson for the city'sgoverning council.

According to Deraji, who is also a biologist and co-director of theSCHRD, Iraq's current prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, had agreed tocontinue with the second and third compensation payments to peopleinside Fallujah who had suffered the loss of a loved one or damagedproperty during the fighting, after he was pressured by the U.S. embassy.

"But now he [Jaafari] has stopped the payments," Deraji told IPS. "Sonow there is no payment to the people and we all continue to suffer."

This month, U.S. Marine Col. David Berger, who is commander of the 8thRegimental Combat Team and responsible for Fallujah, told reporters,"[Fallujah's residents] don't see any progress, they don't see anyaction. They hear a lot of words, a lot of promises, but not a lot ofproduct."

Deraji estimates that up to 150,000 of the 350,000 residents of Fallujahcontinue to live as internally displaced persons due to the lack ofcompensation, and therefore, lack of reconstruction.

Reports from inside the city indicate that residents are increasinglyangry at the situation.

"When I was recently in Fallujah, I didn't see any reconstruction," saidRana Aiouby, a freelance journalist from Baghdad. "Some of the peopleare rebuilding their own houses, but I'm still finding people outsideFallujah who are refugees from the April attack on the city."

Aiouby, who has been in Fallujah many times, said that she was finallyallowed to visit the Shuhada district this past April, after having beenpreviously barred from the area by U.S. forces.

"This is the poorest district of Falluah and where there was some of theworst destruction," she added. "It was at least 95 percent destroyed."

Both Deraji and Aiouby said that the power supply is erratic, and thatrandom bursts of fighting continued on an almost daily basis. Asrecently as Nov. 16, the U.S. military confirmed that a Marine waskilled by a car bomb in Karmah, a small city near Fallujah.

"So many schools are either destroyed or occupied by the Americans evennow," Abu Mohammed, a resident of Fallujah, told IPS in a telephoneinterview. "Our children are either going to school in tents or stayingat home because we are too afraid to have them outside."

Abu Mohammed, a carpenter and 30-year-old father of five, said thatcountless residents were sick from drinking dirty tap water. Others werefalling ill from the lack of electricity coupled with cold nighttimetemperatures that sink as low as 10 degrees Celsius now that winter hasarrived in Iraq.

Deraji agreed, saying there were "many new diseases, especially cancerswith children and with people who stayed in Falluah during the assault".He told IPS, "Maybe they took big doses from radiation and pollutioninside the city during that time, so we have so many medical problems now."

This is complicated by the fact that hospitals in the city are not atfull operating capacity.

"Some reconstruction is going on with our hospitals," added Deraji, "Butit is very slow and the government is taking some of the moneythemselves that we've had for it."

Mohammed Khadem, a 55 year-old engineer in Fallujah, expressedfrustration at the tight military checkpoints in the city. "With retinascans and fingerprinting still being carried out by the U.S. military attimes in order to issue bar-coded identification badges for certainresidents, lines waiting to get into the city are quite long," he said.

During a phone call from inside Fallujah, Khadem told IPS that securityremained a large problem and fighting occurred "nearly every day at times".

Deraji, speaking for the SCHRD, complained that the "Americans are notletting our police reestablish themselves. They've only allowed 200Iraqi police to be established from inside Fallujah and this is not enough."

According to the SCHRD and other NGOs operating in Fallujah, a sore spotfor residents in the city are members of the Iraqi Army who are withU.S. soldiers.

With Fallujah being primarily Sunni and members of the Shia BadrOrganisation militia and Kurdish Peshmerga militia comprising most ofthe Iraqi Army in Fallujah, reports of humiliating and brutal treatmentof residents are common. "Now there are many Iraqi Army men with theAmericans and this is a big problem because they are always shooting andtaking people as detainees," said Deraji. "They are acting like cowboysin films."

_________________(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the http://DahrJamailIraq.com website.

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I enjoy photography and cats, and the people who enjoy photography and cats. Politics has become a second or third interest now that Tom Delay is going to jail and the GopPigS have lost the Congress. Even with the other big-business party, the Democrats, shape-shifting and pretending to stop the war, politics is a swamp that one should avoid.

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